How Much Does Shopify Cost in the UK? Full 2026 Pricing Breakdown
Shopify costs between £5 and £259 per month in the UK on standard plans, with Shopify Plus starting at roughly £1,800 per month. But the subscription is rarely the largest line on the bill. Once card processing, apps and any third-party payment fees are counted, a store turning over £20,000 a month typically pays £400–£700 all-in — and the plan fee is the smallest part of it.
This guide breaks down what each plan costs, what the fees are, and how to work out which tier makes commercial sense for your revenue.
Shopify UK plans at a glance (2026)
| Plan | Monthly (annual billing) | Card rate (Shopify Payments) | Third-party gateway fee | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | £5 | Per-transaction | n/a | Selling via links and social, no storefront |
| Basic | £19 | 2.0% + 25p | 2.0% | First store, one or two staff |
| Grow | £49 | 1.7% + 25p | 1.0% | £10k–£50k/month, small team |
| Advanced | £259 | 1.5% + 25p | 0.6% | £50k+/month, international, custom reporting |
| Plus | from ~£1,800 | Negotiated | Lowest available | £1M+ annual, B2B, multi-store |
Prices exclude VAT and reflect annual billing. Monthly billing runs roughly 25% higher. Shopify frequently runs an introductory offer of £1/month for the first three months on Basic, Grow and Advanced.
Two naming notes that trip people up. The plan formerly called “Shopify” is now Grow — a lot of older guidance still uses the old name. And Starter is not a cut-price online store; it has no storefront at all, only shareable checkout links, which makes it useful for social selling and close to useless for anything else.
The fee that costs more than your plan
The single most expensive mistake in UK Shopify pricing is using a third-party payment gateway instead of Shopify Payments.
Shopify charges an additional platform fee on every transaction processed through an external gateway — on top of whatever that gateway charges you. That fee is 2.0% on Basic, 1.0% on Grow and 0.6% on Advanced.
Work it through on a store doing £20,000 a month on the Basic plan:
- Shopify Payments: roughly 2.0% + 25p per transaction. No additional platform fee.
- Stripe: Stripe’s own UK rate, plus Shopify’s 2.0% platform fee — around £400 a month extra, purely for the privilege of using a different processor.
Unless you have a specific reason — a payment method Shopify Payments doesn’t support, or trading in a region where it isn’t available — use Shopify Payments. The saving usually exceeds the entire subscription.
What isn’t in the subscription
The plan fee covers hosting, SSL, PCI compliance, unlimited products and the admin. Everything below is extra, and this is where budgets drift:
Apps. The realistic figure for a working store is £50–£300 a month on Basic or Grow — reviews, email, search, maybe a bundle or subscription app. Larger stores routinely spend £300–£1,500 a month. App creep is the most common cause of a store costing three times what the owner expected.
Theme. Free themes are capable. A premium theme is a one-off £150–£350. A custom-built theme is a development project, not a purchase — see our guide to what a Shopify build costs.
Domain. £10–£20 a year, whether bought through Shopify or elsewhere.
Email platform. Shopify Email is included but limited. Klaviyo or similar is a separate subscription that scales with list size.
Currency conversion. Selling internationally through Shopify Payments carries a conversion fee on non-GBP transactions. Easy to miss when modelling international expansion.
Development. Any bespoke functionality, integration with your warehouse or accounts system, or ongoing maintenance sits outside the platform fee entirely.
Realistic all-in cost by revenue
These are working budgets, not headline prices. Assume Shopify Payments and a modest app stack.
£5,000/month revenue, Grow plan Subscription £49, processing ~£110, apps ~£100. All-in: around £260/month. The £49 headline is under a fifth of the real cost.
£20,000/month revenue, Grow plan Subscription £49, processing ~£390, apps ~£150. All-in: around £590/month.
£75,000/month revenue, Advanced plan Subscription £259, processing ~£1,240, apps ~£400. All-in: around £1,900/month.
Notice what happens as you scale: the subscription becomes a rounding error and processing dominates. That’s the whole logic of Shopify’s tiers — you’re not buying features so much as buying a lower card rate.
When to upgrade: the break-even maths
Ignore the feature lists. Upgrading is a pure arithmetic question: does the card rate saving exceed the extra subscription cost?
Basic → Grow costs £30/month more and saves 0.3% on card processing. Break-even is £10,000/month in card revenue. Above that, Grow is cheaper than Basic.
Grow → Advanced costs £210/month more and saves 0.2%. Break-even is £105,000/month. Below that, you’re paying for Advanced’s reporting and shipping features, not saving money — which is fine, as long as you know that’s the trade.
Most UK SMEs are correctly placed on Grow, and a meaningful number are on Advanced without the volume to justify it.
Is Shopify good value against the alternatives?
Against WooCommerce, the honest comparison isn’t the price tag. WooCommerce has no licence fee, so it looks cheaper — but you’re then buying hosting, security, PCI compliance and, critically, developer time to keep it running. Shopify bundles all of that. The crossover point depends far more on whether you have technical capacity in-house than on revenue.
Against BigCommerce, pricing is broadly comparable at the entry tiers, with the differences showing up in specific features rather than headline cost.
The useful question is not “which is cheapest” but “which fails more expensively when something breaks at 9am on Black Friday.”
Frequently asked questions
Does Shopify take a percentage of sales? Only through payment processing. There is no separate commission on sales if you use Shopify Payments. If you use an external gateway, Shopify adds a platform fee of 0.6%–2.0% depending on your plan.
Is there a free Shopify plan? No. There’s a short free trial and an introductory £1/month offer for the first three months on Basic, Grow and Advanced, but no permanently free tier.
Do I pay VAT on my Shopify subscription? UK merchants are charged VAT on Shopify fees. If you’re VAT-registered you reclaim it as normal; if you’re not, it’s a real 20% on top of every figure in this guide.
What’s the cheapest way to sell on Shopify? Starter at £5/month, if you only need checkout links shared through social or messaging. For an actual storefront, Basic at £19/month on annual billing is the floor.
Can I change plans later? Yes, up or down, at any time. Billing is prorated. There’s no penalty for downgrading, though you lose access to the higher plan’s features immediately.
How much is Shopify Plus in the UK? Shopify publishes Plus at $2,300/month on a three-year term and from $2,500/month on a one-year term, which lands around £1,800–£2,000. Above a high revenue threshold it converts to a variable platform fee based on your sales. See our full Shopify vs Shopify Plus comparison.
Is annual billing worth it? Monthly billing costs roughly 25% more. If you’re confident you’ll be trading in twelve months, annual is straightforwardly cheaper.
What does the Grow plan include that Basic doesn’t? Lower card rates, a lower third-party gateway fee, more staff accounts and professional reporting. For most stores the card rate is the reason to move.
Do apps have a hidden cost? Beyond the subscription, yes — a heavy app stack slows your storefront, and page speed affects conversion. The cost of ten apps is rarely just the sum of their monthly fees.
Does Shopify charge for bandwidth or traffic spikes? No. Hosting and bandwidth are unlimited on all plans, including through peak trading. This is one of the genuine advantages over self-hosted platforms.
Last reviewed July 2026. Shopify revises pricing periodically — figures should be confirmed against Shopify’s published rates before you commit.
Working out whether your plan still fits, or what a build would cost? We’re a UK Shopify agency specialising in Plus builds, custom themes and ERP integrations. Get in touch and you’ll speak to the engineer directly.